DENVER—Executives representing three top Williston Basin E&Ps came to Hart Energy’s recent DUG Rockies conference and exhibition to praise the Bakken/Three Forks and bury—or at least kick some dirt toward—the Permian.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: OAS), Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES), and Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL)—collectively producing about a quarter of North Dakota’s crude oil—recounted the afflictions and tests the Bakken has weathered: steep differentials, related pipeline constraints and flagging interest from the oil and gas universe during the downturn.

Now those same weaknesses have turned to strengthens. Differentials increasingly favor Bakken Clearbrook crude over West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland spot prices. Pipelines, particularly the Dakota Access, have opened flows east, west and south. The play is once again on the M&A frontlines—in 2017 about $5 billion transacted there—and operations are generating free cash flow.

Barry Biggs, Hess’s vice president of onshore, said the Bakken operators have essentially been regrouping during a particularly crushing halftime.

“This idea that we’re anywhere near the end of the ball game in North Dakota, I think, needs to be debunked,’ he said.

Biggs said that the region’s geology is well known and HBP and the challenge will be continuing to optimize the Bakken while finding additional room to grow.

However, Hess and North Dakota operators will meet their challenges “without all of the hair” that faces Permian E&Ps.

“While there is need to build out additional infrastructure [in the Bakken], it is going to be incremental relative to what the Permian is going to have to do to meet the capacities required to get [oil] out of the basin,” he said.

The Bakken is set to be a key driver of U.S. production growth, with output in 2018 expected to exceed 1.23 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).

Producers may eclipse North Dakota’s previous high of just under 1.23 MMboe/d set in December 2014.

Brad Holly, Whiting’s president and CEO, said the Bakken core can compete with any U.S. basin. New completion techniques have driven performance, with 100% increases in EURs and higher well IPs.

“If you take the labels of the basins off the wells, you’ll see some of the best wells drilled in this country are in North Dakota and the Bakken,” he said.

Holly said a recent analyst report about the Scoop Stack noted that once major basins go on decline, “they never recover.”

“Well, the Bakken is not that story,” he said. “And you can clearly see that the Bakken went on a pretty steep decline in the last downturn but has certainly recovered and production is moving north again.”

Whiting has also seen a 25% reduction in cash costs since 2014. In part, that’s due to the easing of differentials that have long hammered North Dakota.

In March 2017, Bakken and Midland crude differentials flipped. “The big spike in the fourth quarter was the lowest differentials we’ve ever seen in the Bakken,” he said. At times, Bakken oil traded at a $2 to $3 premium. In March, as WTI prices continued to rise, Midland crude prices were stung by a $6 differential due to takeaway constraints.

“With the recent blowout of WTI you can see there’s a substantial difference today between Bakken differentials and Permian differentials that goes straight to the bottom line of economics,” he said.

Whiting and other companies have also kept costs down because of a more restrained approach to activity.

North Dakota averaged 155 rigs in January 2015, according to the Baker Hughes rig count. Two years into the downturn, rig activity had fallen 78%, with just 34 operating in January 2017.

“The Bakken is actually in exactly the same place it was at the start of 2016,” Holly said.

In contrast, rig counts are up 59% in Texas and 46% in Oklahoma. “It certainly drove costs up, certainly drove inflation, supply, labor costs, everything like that. So, we’re watching this very carefully.”

Whiting cemented lower costs with contracts to service providers, but also as a way to prevent frack crews from defecting to the Permian or Powder River basins.

“North Dakota is fairly isolated. It takes a lot of money to move equipment to North Dakota and to move out,” he said. “If we lose them to the Permian, Powder River or anywhere else, it’s hard to get them back.”

Holly said Whiting plans to be in the Bakken for decades and giving service providers a steady program “gives them the confidence to stay.”

Bakken operators acknowledge they face a challenge in finding new inventory. But as Jay B. Knaebel, Oasis’ vice president for reservoir engineering said, the has 585 core locations in the Williston and an additional 467 extended core locations.

Oasis recently decided to move its Painted Woods area into its core due to advancements in enhanced stimulations.

“Some of this extended core acreage is now becoming viable at $40 oil,” he said. “We’re feeling really confident about Painted Woods.”

Overall, the company’s Williston basin core and extended core offers 1,400 gross drilling, all of which breakeven at oil prices of $45 oil.

Knaebel also noted that Oasis closed in February its $946 million deal to buy 20,300 net acres in the Delaware Basin. The company plans to divest some of its outer Williston acreage for about $500 million and anticipates the company’s liquidity at roughly $1 billion after the transaction closes.

Oasis likes the opportunities it has in the Delaware acreage, which features over pressured columns and 80% oil.

Nevertheless, about 85% of Oasis $835 million capex will be spent in the Williston, where it will run a four or five-rig drilling program and complete 100 wells. In the Delaware, the company will drill up to 20 wells and complete as many as eight of them.

“Oasis is in the Bakken for the long term,” Knaebel said. “We do consider it home base. And it has world-class inventory.”

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.